Maps & Atlases @ The Gargoyle } 03.10.11

While Menomena was the obvious draw that evening, there seemed to be a lot of fans in attendance just equally excited to catch the opener, Maps & Atlases. You could probably count me in that group, although it took me a while to get there.

I saw them last summer on tour for their Perch Patchwork release, but didn’t leave the show with a strong opinion either way and it wasn’t until I took the time to finally listen to the new album this winter that I started to appreciate their peculiar yet poppy arrangements. This time around, I gravitated towards the intricate construction of the songs, watching frontman Dave Davison’s cascading guitar work mirror his vocals. Their math-folk set went by quickly, enough so that fans pleaded with M&A after their set to stick around for one more song.

-RED. So RED. With the front lights off, the stage was just coated with the dim red back lights. I probably should have packed some primes, but opted to test out my new 14-24mm. In hindsight, the lighting that evening was so dim that I don’t think it would have made that big of a difference to chosen the primes.

-Band members were floating around the venue before and after the show chatting it up with fans and signing records. Pretty cool to see a band devote that time to fans.